Alternative Investing Report - December 15, 2025

*as of 12/14, Sources: S&P, BTC, FTSE, DJRE, GOLD

In the first three quarters of the year, there was $37.6 billion in sales volume for office properties, a 40% year-over-year increase. While some of the sales came at deep discounts, office values rose 5.4% year-over-year in Q3, with both downtown and suburban buildings seeing gains. This bump comes as leasing demand rebounded in Q3, with a nationwide net absorption of 19.8 million square feet, and Q4 is projected to be even stronger.

➨ TAKEAWAY: It’s been a long road to recovery for the office sector, but the signs are encouraging and it does appear as if prices have hit bottom and are coming back up. While hybrid work is here to stay, supply has finally been constrained enough with office conversions and a lack of new construction that it is no longer outpacing demand. However, office prices are still at least 15% below their 2022 peak, so there is still quite a bit of recovery room ahead.

Vincent co-founders Eric Cantor and Adam Katz talked about how to evaluate a real estate investment opportunity, focusing on a live deal in the industrial sector. They discussed the current state of the industrial real estate market, key terms and metrics, and a structured framework for evaluating opportunities. The conversation also covered the specific industrial property being analyzed, financial projections, and future market predictions, providing a comprehensive overview for novice and experienced investors.

🏀 WNBA card market: Over the past year, search volume for WNBA cards on the Whatnot platform grew three times faster than for NBA cards, led by searches for Caitlin Clark, Paige Bueckers, and Cameron Brink.

💵 Wealthfront IPO: The asset management platform raised $485 million at a $2.05 billion valuation, but its share price rose just 1% after its debut on the public markets. The offering still represents a gain in value over its last reported valuation of $1.4 billion in 2022.

🪙 Tokenized stocks: The SEC is allowing the Depository Trust & Clearing Corp (DTCC), the world’s largest securities settlement company, to offer a tokenization service for the stocks in the Russell 1000, index funds, and U.S. Treasuries. The DTCC plans to launch the service next year, and it will likely be the first step to the widespread tokenization of the equities market.

🚀 Geothermal fundraise: The startup Fervo Energy raised a $462 million funding round with Google as an investor, as it attempts to build its first large-scale geothermal power plant.

🎨 Tiffany studios auction: Sotheby’s Dreaming in Glass auction featured a Tiffany lamp that sold for $4.42 million, above the high estimate of $3 million, though a large stained glass window with an estimate of $2 million did not sell. All told, 48 of the 50 lots sold, with 29 of them exceeding their high estimates.

🪙 Do Kwon sentenced: The founder of Terraform Labs who was responsible for more $40 billion in losses when the Terra stablecoin collapsed in 2022 was sentenced to 15 years in prison following two guilty pleas.

This week: Medline is set to go public with what will likely be the largest U.S. IPO of the year.

Monday: Homebuilder confidence index released.

Tuesday: Delayed November U.S. employment report and U.S. retail sales report due to be released.

Wednesday: Sotheby’s Important Judaica auction, featuring a 14th century Hebrew Bible with a high estimate of $2.5 million.

Thursday: Limited consumer price index (CPI) inflation reports from October and November and core CPI reports due to be released; Fanatics Collect December Premier auction, featuring a Shohei Ohtani card already in the seven figures.

Friday: Existing home sales report released; Heritage’s Winter Sports Catalog auction, featuring multiple seven-figure Mickey Mantle lots.

Sunday: Winter solstice - the shortest day of the year.